When Nora Roberts Met Sarah J. Maas: A Conversation on What Readers Want

The scent of freshly brewed coffee mingles with the crisp October air on the river’s edge. A breeze stirs the amber leaves littering the cobblestone patio of the café, where two women sit across from each other, their mugs half-empty.

Nora Roberts: The river’s always been a good listener. Quiet, predictable, like a reader flipping pages at three in the morning. You ever notice how both just want to know what comes next?

Sarah J. Maas: I do. But isn’t it more than that now? Readers aren’t just looking for the next sentence. They want to live in the story—to screenshot your prose and pin it to their walls, to argue about characters on TikTok. It’s no longer a private act.

Nora Roberts: Hmm. I’ve been writing long enough to see trends come and go like bad haircuts. But the bones of a story? That’s what lasts. A character’s grief, their hunger for love or power or peace—it’s what makes a reader dog-ear a page. Why’d you write Feyre crawling through that mud at the start of ACOWAR?

Sarah J. Maas: She had to earn her power. You don’t just hand a woman a sword and call her strong. She loses her sister, nearly dies, gets betrayed—then she becomes more than a victim. But readers also need beauty to hook them. Those moss-covered forests, Rhysand’s velvet voice… it’s escapism with teeth.

Nora Roberts: Escapism’s fine. I’ve built a career letting women leave their laundry piles behind. But if your world’s all glitter and no substance, it’s a magazine ad, not a book. When I wrote The Witness, Ellie needed to heal, yes, but she also had to want something. A man wasn’t the prize. Her courage was.

Sarah J. Maas: Oh, I agree! But today’s readers want both. They want a woman who saves herself and the kingdom. And they want to text their bestie a line at 2 a.m. about how that woman’s trauma mirrors their own. That’s why my readers love the Crescent City series—Bryce’s grief isn’t just a plot device. It’s real. Messy. Relatable in a way that goes viral.

Nora Roberts: [chuckling] “Goes viral.” I still say “page-turner.” But you’re right about the stakes. Characters have to bleed, even in fantasy. Though I wonder… does all this social media chatter cheapen the work? I mean, when I started, a review was a clipping in an envelope. Now it’s a popularity contest.

Sarah J. Maas: It’s a double-edged sword. BookTok’s put my backlist on bestseller lists, but I’ll never write to trends. Still, when a teen sends me a DM saying Cassel’s scars helped them cope with anxiety, I know it’s worth the noise. The connection isn’t the enemy—it’s the distraction from it we have to guard against.

Nora Roberts: Funny. That’s what my husband says about wine. The buzz is fleeting, but a good vintage? It lingers. So, what’s the secret? How do we keep readers thirsty for more without watering down the story?

Sarah J. Maas: Balance. Give them a heroine who’s flawed but fierce, a love interest with a secret smile, and a world they’ll tattoo onto their hearts. And don’t underestimate the power of a cliffhanger.

Nora Roberts: [laughs] Oh, I won’t argue that. But don’t forget the quiet moments. A man fixing a porch swing. A woman planting tulips. Those details are how readers find themselves in your book.

Sarah J. Maas: You’re right. Even in Prythian, there’s always a moment where the war turns to silence—a shared meal, a hand held. It’s the lull before the storm.

Nora Roberts: And sometimes the storm’s just… life. But we give them the tools to weather it. Through fiction.

Sarah J. Maas: [nodding] Yeah. That’s the real magic.

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Talk to Nora Roberts or Sarah J. Maas on HoloDream to explore how timeless storytelling meets modern reader needs.